Chapmanville pulls away from Hoover

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CHAPMANVILLE - Herbert Hoover started strong Friday against Chapmanville but the Huskies faded in the second half, falling to the Tigers 33-19.Hoover took an early lead on a Tyler Americo pass to Joey Forbes for a 10-yard touchdown in the first quarter and extended the lead to 13-6 when Americo found Josh Gurski in the end zone for a 27-yard touchdown with 19 seconds to play in the half.On the final play of the second quarter, Chapmanville (1-1) got creative and got back in the game.Quarterback Max Spradlin threw a backward pass to running back Dustin Smith, who pulled up and hit Brady Cox inside the 10-yard line. Cox broke several Hoover tackles and lunged across the goal line as time expired to cut the Hoover lead to 13-12 at the break.

"We put that in a couple of weeks ago and thought it was a good one because [Smith] is an ex-quarterback," Chapmanville coach George Barker said. "We wanted to keep everybody honest."Huskies coach Tim Meyer said errors kept Hoover (0-2) from its first win of the season."A couple mental mistakes here and there," he said. "It's tough. Our kids played hard, but like I said we made a couple of mental errors."Hoover got the ball to start the second half and saw a promising 10-play drive come to an end on a Shawn Dotson fumble.Chapmanville took advantage of the Huskies' mistake and moved the ball through the air on its way to another Cox touchdown reception, this one from 15 yards away from Spradlin. Cox finished with five catches for 71 yards and three touchdowns and Spradlin was 9-of-14 passing for 138 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.

"[Cox] has good hands," Barker said. "Once we get in the flow of the game, our offense, because we mix it up a whole lot, we're hard to guard when they do things right. We're getting better."After a Hoover three-and-out on the next series, Smith took over for Chapmanville.The senior broke runs of 69, 78 and 51 yards in the second half on his way to 227 yards on the ground for the game. He added a 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to top his big night against the Huskies."[Smith] was a 1,000-yard rusher last year and there's no quit in him," Barker said. "I think he only came out for one play in the entire game. He's going to keep coming and keep coming. They may make a tackle one play, but he keeps coming back."Meyer said the Hoover offense's lack of production made it especially tough for the defense in the second half."Defense may have been tired, but on the offensive side of the ball we weren't helping them," he said. "A couple three-and-outs here and there. When your defense is out there the whole time, that's what happens."

The Huskies were missing starting quarterback Brenden Holbrook, who suffered a broken leg last week against Ravenswood. In his place Americo threw the ball 21 times - completing 14 - for 152 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. On the ground, Dotson gained 100 yards on 23 carries and scored once to lead Hoover."[Americo] played well," Meyer said. "Shawn always runs hard and is a great kid. He really did a good job."Chapmanville travels to Scott next week, while Hoover hits the road to play at Wayne.